Icemud's Breeding Projects And Motherchucking Pollination Extravaganza

Icemud · Apr 17, 2019

Hey fellow pollen chuckers and chuckettes!

Welcome to Icemud's grow journals!!! (insert studio audience applause and cheering)

This grow journal is dedicated to my breeding projects and pollen chucking projects with a goal of creating enough seeds to last me a lifetime, and then some.

I welcome everyone to join in the fun, ask questions, make comments, bring jokes, refreshments, smoke freely and feel at home!

My rules: keep it positive and friendly! NO politics!

The strains:
In this journal I will be using seeds (regular) to do open pollination projects to both create and preserve the lineages of the original strain seeds, but also will be crossing the seeds with 9 selected mother plants that I have collected over the years. Some of the mothers I collected for potency, some for rarity, some for terpene profiles, and some because they are just amazing plants.

For each pollen chucking project I do, I will start with approximately 8 seeds (regular) sourced from different breeders, and will be using clones of my mother plants.

Mother Plants (clone only strains) I will be using in each project:

Granddaddy Purple: Purple Urkle x Big Bud
Skywalker OG supposedly its (Blueberry x Mazar) x OG kush
Private Reserve OG: supposedly a stabilized IBL of OG Kush pheno from Orgnkid...
Ogiesel: (chemdawg x Mass super skunk) x SFV OG
Black Cherry Soda (have had this plant since 2013) According to the creator, SunyCheba, this strain is created with a conglomerate of Clone only Blackberry, Afghan Kush, NL #5, G13, Apollo 13, Cinderalla 99
Harlequin (high CBD, amazing terps, have had this plant for over 5 years)
Trainwreck (the clone only west coast real deal trainwreck, with minty, pine lemon flavors and hemp like structure) Mexican (Sativa), Thai (Sativa), Afghani (Indica)
Mendo Grape Kush: Mendo Purps x O.G. Kush x Grapefruit
Gorilla Glue: Sour Dubb x Chem Sis x Chocolate Diesel

1st project up for flowering is using Hazeman's Sour Grapes strain. I popped 8 seeds, 7 went into soil, and 1 seed I dropped in my kitchen and lost it... Near flowering.

2nd project: Bangi Haze F9's. Just put these cracked seeds into soil as of yesterday, a long way to go on these, but will be a very interesting projecting bringing in some F9's with landrace parents

Grow Area Description and equipment
The Grow tents are a Hydrohut silver edition 2x4' tent. Actual measurements are larger and each tent measures approx 2.5'x5'x7'. Each tent is equipped with a large carbon filter (Can-filter or similar), 6" fan on a manual variable speed controller. Intake air is sucked into the tent by the negative pressure and let in the lower portion of the tent on each side. Also the flowering tent is equipped with a circulation fan to provide a constant light airflow on the plants and foliage.

The lights I use are LED and a combination of Budmaster LED and Advanced LED lights. Depending on what tent, and what stage of growth I am in, I will change up the lights to either involve different intensities, more penetration, different spectrums etc... This is NOT a sponsored journal and I was blessed by both companies in the past to do test runs on their products. For information on these lights, search for my previous journals.

Is it aircooled?
The lights are cooled by individual fans to disperse the heat given off by the lights. A pin style heat sink is used on each module. The case has plenty of holes and openings for ventilation.

The tent is cooled by a 6" hydrofarm fan hooked to a large carbon scrubber mounted at the top of my grow tent.

Soil or Hydro?
Soil.... recycled and reused soil. Soil is approximately 2-3 years old, and it is re-amended each cycle after being dumped into a large bin. All of my leaves are composted back into the soil.

If soil... what is in your mix?
The basic ingredients/additives are below

The Base Soil Mix:
ProMix HP
Fox Farm Ocean Forest
Worm Castings

The Amendments:
Basalt
Calcium Carbonate Powder 97%
Soft Rock Phosphate (Collidal Clay with high phosphorus and CEC value)
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)

If soil... What size pot?
For this grow I will be keeping the plants in 3 gallon round pots for the entire grow, which means I will have to water frequently and heavily bottle feed.

Temp of Room/cab?
usually my ambient temps stay between 75F-85F (during the current summer months the upper portion of the tent can reach 93F while the canopy stays roughly 85F.

RH of Room/cab?
my RH typically stays right around 50% but sometimes (rarely) the winds come off the desert and dry the RH down to 10% or less. Usually in the winter months of October, November, December and January we see a lot of offshore breezes and low humidity.

PH of media or res?
I don't check PH of the soil, and usually don't check the feedings either, but sometimes I will verify its around 6-6.5.

Any Pests ?
No pests at all, generally I do preventive measures with new soil and new plants. I use mosquito dunks with new soil on the first couple waterings, especially with fox farm soils to make sure their are no fungus gnats. I usually will spray the plants in early and mid veg with neem, SNS products and other organic and safe pest control products and pesticides as a preventative, never in flowering. In rare ocassions I will use spinosad as a systemic and also foliar pesticide, and although it is not approved for commercial cannabis use in some states, its one of the safest pest products on the market, organic and one of the most commonly used pesticides in commercial food agriculture. I also will use yellow and blue pest sticky cards if needed for IPM.

How often are you watering?
This depends on the portion of the cycle I am in, but typically I water about 1x per week in early veg, in late veg about 1x every 3-4 days, In early flowering about 1x every 3-4 days, late flowering about 1x per 5-6 days.

Type and strength of ferts used?
Lately I have been rotating between synthetic and organic bottled nutrients. I don't really stick to a particular feeding schedule and really just watch the plants and feed them as needed. I usually feed every other watering, and use plain water or compost teas inbetween feedings.

A little brief history of my grow experience.

Well I started off my very 1st grow here at 420 Magazine about 8 years ago, and this place has become my grow home (grome?) ever since. When I first started growing I learned most of what I know from this site, and absolutely nailed my first grow. I started off growing just a couple strains at a time, following a strict nutrient regiment, using a scrog and 1000w of HID lighting in the very same tents I am using now. (good tent brand).

Since then I have been nonstop with growing and absolutely love it. I became a LED grow light tester for a while on this site, trying out new technologies, answering questions for other growers, and trying my best to give reputable and honest answers and information and sorting out all the BS and lies from bad companies. I was extremely blessed to test out probably over 13 different LED light types and about 5 different brands. I had also hosted a YouTub3 channel for quite some time where I would do unboxing, testing and informational videos about all of my light tests which I really enjoyed for some time, until the YouTub3 got sort of anti cannabis and started to delete growers channels, at which I removed most of my vids and stopped making videos. (all of my light test videos are still there).

I've always been a soil grower, and although I've tried different techniques, nutrients, soil blends, I tend to stick with what is cheap, simple and effective and works for me. I experimented with High Brix growing in the early days when it first came to the forums here and managed to get a few plants up in the mid 25+ range of brix which is fantastic. I've used completely organic nutrients bottled and organic soil amendments and now I am even doing hybrid organic/synthetic regiments to try to get the best of both worlds...

In terms of strains...geeze, I couldn't even estimate how many different strains I have run over the years, but I would estimate maybe 30 or 40 different strains in total. I have kept some of my favorites as mothers, and have had some of them now for 6 years and they still are some of my favorites, which all of you will get to see.

I've smoke cannabis since I was an early teen, probably 12 or 13 years old and still enjoy it every weekend although I have cut down quite a bit lately due to my job requiring a lot of brain power and critical thought. I love the industry, I love the plant, I love the people and I am lucky enough to even work in the legal industry, although my job is not all that fun. I currently am a compliance manager for 2 type 7 volatile extraction facilities and 2 type 11 distribution facilities and pretty much my job is understanding about 500 pages of regulations, laws, conducting audits, ensuring compliance, safety and legal needs are met and followed, writing operation manuals, applying for licenses, communicating with state regulators, writing laws and public comments and the list goes on and on... So if any of you have questions about the California legal market, I can absolutely answer them with experience, but I don't actually do extractions so questions in that area I can't really help with. I love my job, I love working in the industry and as much as the changing industry frustrates me sometimes, I wouldn't trade the opportunity for the world... well maybe for a winning lottery ticket.. but ya know what I mean

Anyhow, so hear we are, ready to get started on Icemud's Mother Chucking party and I welcome everyone to follow along, comment, participate, ask questions, learn, spread knowledge or even just tell jokes...LOL Lets make this pollen chucking extravaganza fun !!!!

Well on to the show!!!!

Graytail · Apr 18, 2019

Big Sparks · Apr 18, 2019

Oh you know im in for this!

Seedlingmtl · Apr 18, 2019

Subbed in and ready.

Mr. Krip · Apr 18, 2019

Lowrider72 · Apr 18, 2019

Looking forward to the show.

Stunger · Apr 18, 2019

Hey Icemud, really interesting project of grows you doing there. The strains look awesome. Clearly you have enjoyed a lot of experience in growing in soil. I wonder if I could jump in with a question. I've tried to be organic with my soil mix too but I left out Lime because I had added Bio-char and Neem meal, both of which said to give a 'liming effect'. My plants initially appeared really good, green & healthy looking, and then either became nutrient deficient or got a pH lockout of nutes. Generally I understood organic soil to not require pH testing, but then almost all mixtures seem to contain lime as an ingredient but mine didn't and I think during the grow a nute lockout situation may have occurred. You aren't concerned with pH but then you use Calcium Carbonate. What is your approach to this in your soil grows so they are successful? 1/2 cup - 1 cup per cubic foot? How regularly? Ever had a nute lockout occur?

Cheers

dr.h00k · Apr 18, 2019

...

...cheerz...h00k... :hookah:

...

Pennywise · Apr 18, 2019

I’m in for the grow show!

Icemud · Apr 18, 2019

Stunger said:
Hey Icemud, really interesting project of grows you doing there. The strains look awesome. Clearly you have enjoyed a lot of experience in growing in soil. I wonder if I could jump in with a question. I've tried to be organic with my soil mix too but I left out Lime because I had added Bio-char and Neem meal, both of which said to give a 'liming effect'. My plants initially appeared really good, green & healthy looking, and then either became nutrient deficient or got a pH lockout of nutes. Generally I understood organic soil to not require pH testing, but then almost all mixtures seem to contain lime as an ingredient but mine didn't and I think during the grow a nute lockout situation may have occurred. You aren't concerned with pH but then you use Calcium Carbonate. What is your approach to this in your soil grows so they are successful? 1/2 cup - 1 cup per cubic foot? How regularly? Ever had a nute lockout occur?

Cheers

Hey Stunger... well yea I've definitely had nutrient lockouts and issues, and with soil its sometimes tricky to diagnose. What I' have learned is when I start seeing a plant get deficient is to flush the plant with pure R/O water (ph balanced around 6.4) and usually that will correct the issue. Using soil based calcium additives is tricky because calcium reacts with many other nutrients including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium so most of the time I just do the flush above and give it some time and the plant will fix itself. Sometimes I will hold off giving the effected plant any nutrients at all until I see the problem getting better. Really there isn't a "formula" per say with soil, as even bagged soil isn't always perfectly consistant. I don't usually measure my additive precisely, but If I were to estimate, I use a huge 100 gallon bin to mix my soil in, usally filling it up 4/5 of the way, and usually add 2 cups of calcium carbonate and that seems to be about right.

Really what I have learned, especially when running like 8 - 10 different strains, all with different needs, is that ya have to find a nutrient approach that is right in the middle. Some strains love nutrients, some need very little so the goal is finding the middle of the road, and if a plant freaks out and starts to act up, then I generally will flush it, get the soil balance back to where it needs to be and give it time. Making sure you give the right amount of water is very important too as soggy soil that doesnt dry out tends to have PH swings much more dramatic than a dry/moist soil, so make sure do do the "lift the pot" technique before watering and watch the leaf sag to determine when to water the plants. For me, I am always feeding plants, but I only feed them when they show me they need it, not all plants on a schedule.

Lewydeville · Apr 18, 2019

Hey Icemud I’m down for this journal 100%. It was actually your journal that I first stumbled across that introduced me to 420 magazine years ago which I would like to thank you for. You were running your Black cherry soda and harlequin back then and using colloidal silver to reverse plants. I’m actually about to embark on a seed run myself now and had always planned to use the technique you showed in that journal. Really looking forward to this.

Stunger · Apr 18, 2019

Icemud said:
Hey Stunger... well yea I've definitely had nutrient lockouts and issues, and with soil its sometimes tricky to diagnose. What I' have learned is when I start seeing a plant get deficient is to flush the plant with pure R/O water (ph balanced around 6.4) and usually that will correct the issue. Using soil based calcium additives is tricky because calcium reacts with many other nutrients including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium so most of the time I just do the flush above and give it some time and the plant will fix itself. Sometimes I will hold off giving the effected plant any nutrients at all until I see the problem getting better. Really there isn't a "formula" per say with soil, as even bagged soil isn't always perfectly consistant. I don't usually measure my additive precisely, but If I were to estimate, I use a huge 100 gallon bin to mix my soil in, usally filling it up 4/5 of the way, and usually add 2 cups of calcium carbonate and that seems to be about right.

Really what I have learned, especially when running like 8 - 10 different strains, all with different needs, is that ya have to find a nutrient approach that is right in the middle. Some strains love nutrients, some need very little so the goal is finding the middle of the road, and if a plant freaks out and starts to act up, then I generally will flush it, get the soil balance back to where it needs to be and give it time. Making sure you give the right amount of water is very important too as soggy soil that doesnt dry out tends to have PH swings much more dramatic than a dry/moist soil, so make sure do do the "lift the pot" technique before watering and watch the leaf sag to determine when to water the plants. For me, I am always feeding plants, but I only feed them when they show me they need it, not all plants on a schedule.

Thanks for sharing that, it is really useful having the experience of others to help guide one's actions. I guess a pH meter would be a useful tool if it gave reliable readings. The flushing with RO water I will do in future if a suspected nute lockout is occurring.

I can appreciate the different nute needs between strains and have noticed that myself. This year I was probably keeping the soil more moist from being mindful of the soil biology and my now 'air pots' drying out quicker. But your's and others mention on watering to leaf sag, which reminds me that the best result I had came from a plant that was several times severely water deprived, so much I thought it had gone past the point of no return. Part of that 'greater moisture' this time around was that upon chopping last year's grow I noticed large areas of the potted container soil that was fairly dry while other parts were more OK. Also too, this year I turned my standard plastic pots into 'air pots' so I felt that any moisture excess would presumably be lost quite quickly. However, I didn't notice any leaf sag during this grow, so indicating I probably should have waited longer between waterings.

Thanks again and look forward to following your developing multi strain grow project!

TheGreenYeti · Apr 18, 2019

I will be over in this corner bud watching the grow unfold!

Aroxol · Apr 18, 2019

I’d also like to join if that’s OK.

Teddy, I’m sorry man, I know it’s not allowed...but sometimes ghostrider has to buzz the tower...even when the pattern is full. Look forward to the grow Ice.

Icemud · Apr 29, 2019

Hey everyone!!!! sorry for the long delay in getting this journal going... Had my birthday right before 4/20, and then spend the next week and a half prepping my office to be moved (at work) so been extremely busy and by the time I've been getting home at night... crash!!! lol

Anyhow... lets get to bizzzznassss!!!

First up... The sour Grapes Project.

I flipped the Sour Grapes project to 12/12 on April 26th, so today would make day 4 of flowering and the girls are looking great. I gave them their first "bloom" feeding in which I did half organic bottled nutrients and half synthetic along with some cal/mag, humic acid, mycos and enzymes and PH to 6.2 approx (using the drops).

In the sour grapes project I have 7 sour grapes plants, as well as all of my "mothers" dating back to as old as 7 years ago (clones of clones of clones...etc). I will be doing an open pollen project so I will be using all the males, and keeping all the females as well, as my goal is to preserve much of the variety in these plants, as well as have a lot of variety in the progeny which is why I am using whatever males I get. (that is unless one is deformed or drastically bad for some reason or another). I haven't really seen any signs of sex yet as it seems that when I top the plants a few times its harder to determine sex until they really pop either pre flowers or preballs.

I am really excited about this project as I definitely am a huge fan of grape flavored strains and I think this will pair well with my GDP (not quite grape but more of a "purple" flavor) and my Black Cherry Soda which is also a fruit punch/grape flavor. I also think that because the sour grapes is a very frosty strain it may pair well with my trainwreck and GorillaGlew (I'm purposely misspelling it because of the glue company).

Anyhow, here are some photos of the sour grapes project. A few of the plants have saggy leaves and were watered right after taking these photos, so they perked up after the tugor pressure went up again and they were happy.

***When you are looking at these pictures... the sour grapes are to the right side of the photo.. each row is 3 plants deep, and the sour grapes are the 2 rows furthest to the right, and then the 3rd row from the right, very last plant.